Burning Iranian oil tanker has sunk after Jan. 6 accident

BEIJING (Reuters) – An Iranian oil tanker has sunk after burning for more than a week following a collision on Jan. 6 in the East China Sea, Chinese state media said on Sunday, adding that large amounts of oil are burning in the surrounding waters.

The stricken tanker, called the Sanchi (IMO:9356608), which had been adrift and on fire following the accident with the freighter CF Crystal, had “suddenly ignited” around noon (0400 GMT), China Central Television (CCTV) said.

“Currently it has already sunk,” CCTV said, citing the Shanghai maritime search and rescue centre. It showed video of a tower of billowing black smoke that it said reached as high as 1,000 metres, and flames on the surface of the water. The ship sank before 5 p.m. (0900 GMT), the broadcaster said.

China’s State Oceanic Administration said that because the hull of the ship had detonated, a large amount of oil in surrounding waters was on fire, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The Administration said it would expand the scope of its monitoring and “quickly ascertain the spread and drift of overflowing oil” from the wrecked ship.

A Chinese salvage team on Saturday recovered two bodies from the tanker. Another body, presumed to be one of the Sanchi’s sailors, was found on Monday and brought to Shanghai for identification.

The Sanchi’s crew consisted of 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis.

Iranian officials said the remaining 29 crew members and passengers of the tanker were presumed dead. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sent messages of condolence to the families of the crew and called for an investigation into the accident, Iranian state media reported.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier told his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif by telephone that “as long as there is 1 percent of hope, China will continue to make 100 percent effort” to rescue and recover the crew.

The tanker, owned by National Iranian Tanker Co, was carrying almost 1 million barrels of condensate, an ultra-light crude oil, to South Korea.

It collided with the CF Crystal (IMO:9497050), which was carrying grain from the United States, about 160 nautical miles (184 km) off China’s coast near Shanghai.

Reporting by Michael Martina and Tina Qiao; Additional reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, editing by Louise Heavens

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Plane Nearly Falls into Black Sea with 168 People on Board Before Getting Stuck in Mud

A plane landing in an airport in northern Turkey skid off the runway and nearly fell into the Black Sea, clinging from a steep slope with its nose toward the water below. All the people on board survived the incident.

The dramatic scene occurred on Saturday night at Trabzon Airport, the final destination of the Boeing 737-800 plane that departed the Turkish capital of Ankara earlier in the day. The plane touched the runway but then veered to the left, nosediving down the cliff before getting stuck in mud a few feet away from the sea.

Passengers panicked. “We tilted to the side, the front was down while the plane’s rear was up. There was panic; people shouting, screaming,” Fatma Gordu, who was on board of the flight, told state-run news agency Anadolu, quoted in AFP.

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A Pegasus Airlines aircraft is pictured after it skidded off the runway at Trabzon airport by the Black Sea in Trabzon, Turkey, January 14, 2018. Muhammed Kacar/Dogan News Agency via Reuters

“We stayed inside the plane for at least 20 minutes waiting for someone to help us,” an unnamed passenger told English-language Turkish publication Daily Sabbah. “There was a smell of fuel inside so we all thought the plane will explode, but thankfully it did not happen,” the passenger added.

All of the 168 people on board of the aircraft were able to safely evacuate the aircraft, according to the flight operator, low-cost carrier Pegasus Airlines. “All 162 passengers, 2 pilots and 4 cabin crew have been disembarked safely from the aircraft. There has been no loss of life or injury to anyone on-board,” Pegasus said in a statement posted on their website, describing the event as a “runway excursion incident.”

A Pegasus Airlines aircraft is pictured after it skidded off the runway at Trabzon airport by the Black Sea in Trabzon, Turkey, January 14, 2018. Ihlas News Agency (IHA) via Reuters

The airport was temporarily shut down until Sunday morning as firefighters cooled down the plane and authorities investigated the accident, whose cause remains unclear. According to Turkish reports, the weather conditions at the time of landing featured light rain and fog.

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